


Chains

by Kimiko93



Series: Moments [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: A little angst, Chains make them talkative somehow, Episode 74 Spoilers, F/M, Fluff, Relationship Discussions, among other things, and not the other way around!, from kinky to angsty to fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-10
Updated: 2016-11-10
Packaged: 2018-08-30 06:52:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8522881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimiko93/pseuds/Kimiko93
Summary: SPOILERS FOR 74! Posing as slaves is never, ever a good idea. So through wacky circumstances, Percy and Vex find themselves chained up in a holding cell for misbehaved property, waiting for Cenokir to come pick them up. They pass the time by talking. ~“ – You want to do this now?” Vex cut him off before he got to fully vocalize the question. “Seriously?”“Well, now I brought it up, and it’s not like we have anything better to do,” he said quickly. Probably blushing again, judging from how flustered he sounded. At least that was something. “Or do you have any other plans for the afternoon?”“I did, and then someone blew himself up in public,” Vex retorted. “Getting us stuck here, remember?”“Oh, deflect all you want,” he said in a huff. “Still. Now it’s on the table. Let’s talk.”“Is this really the later you envisioned?” She tried once more. He chuckled.“No, it really isn’t,” he admitted. “It does have its own unique advantages though. No need for eye contact, and no one can walk away right now.”“You make a fair point,” she conceded. “Just imagine how much faster Keyleth and my brother could have gotten their shit together if we’d just locked them up together…”





	

“This is ridiculous,” Percy complained behind her, and not for the first time.

“I know!” Vex agreed wholeheartedly. “Getting locked up is Keyleth’s job, and I can’t even reach anyone to bail us out!”

They were sitting in some sort of holding cell for misbehaved slaves, chained to each other by the hands, and to the wall via their collars, her still in the shackles they had put on in Cenokir’s shop, Percy in brand new ones after he had blasted through the old set somehow.

Funny story, that. And utterly predictable, if not for the fact that the two of them were usually the ones to get people out of jail, not end up there themselves.

It had been entirely Percy’s fault, really. She’d totally have gotten away with tripping the gross people propositioning them if he hadn’t blown his shackles off somehow.  Always so dramatic.

At least they hadn't been manhandled much, not after they'd dropped Cenokir's name. And as far as jail cells went, it was actually one of the cozier ones. Very small, but they were alone, bars to other cells that were currently unoccupied on three sides, a relatively warm wall that they were chained to. Usually, cells and dungeons of the sort were moist and cold and disgusting, but the general temperature of the fire plane apparently even made jail cells warmer than average. In fact, the place probably had the most agreeable temperature yet as far as places in the fire plane went.

The smell wasn’t better than your average dungeon’s, though. Probably worse, due to the temperature. Well, at least they were alone for the time being.

“To be fair, I believe Cenokir will know where to find us anyhow,” Percy mused. “This seems to be the place where wayward slaves end up.”

“You think this would be where those first guys would have taken us, then?” Vex asked, more to pass the time than anything else.

“No, they’d have put their own chains on us and taken us to the closest market,” Percy assumed. “This seems to be more of a temporary storage place. For high-value goods, even.”

“And here I was about to be upset to be treated as chattel,” Vex snorted. “But the high value makes it all okay.”

Percy behind her shrugged.

“It’s how this place works,” he sighed. “I find it quite distasteful myself. And even more distasteful that we will owe Cenokir so much more for this.”

Vex laughed.

“That doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, you know?” She teased, leaning back against him and resting her head on his shoulder a bit.

“Were you _actually_ serious about that?” Percy asked, sounding scandalized, after he recovered from a lengthy fit of coughing. That just make her laugh even more.

“Hey, don’t judge me!” She went on. “Grog and Scanlan were down, too!”

“I’ve come to expect that from them,” Percy scoffed. “But I figured _you_ at least had standards. Of a kind.”

“Well, doesn’t someone think highly of himself,” Vex muttered under her breath.

“Excuse me?” He asked, and she could feel him trying to turn his head her way.

“Nothing, darling,” she said in that sing-song voice she sometimes used around him. “And I mean, it would be an _experience_.”

“…It would at that,” he admitted begrudgingly. His disgruntled tone made her giggle some more.

“Oh, come on, have you never slept with someone just because it would be a fun story to tell later?” She teased some more.

“ _No_?” He sputtered, and it was really too bad they were sitting the way they were, because from what she could tell from the little bit of his ear that was in her field of vision, his blush had to be both adorable and delightful. Oh well, the way things were going, she’d probably make him blush a few more times before they all found their fiery death.   

“Really?” She went on anyhow. “And what about a certain tiefling?”

That gave him pause.

“I’m sorry, I don’t share your fondness of Zahra, I’m afraid,” he then said wryly. That took her aback.

“Huh.” She made, sitting up straighter to collect her thoughts. “Alright. First: not the same thing at all, darling. Second: Too bad. And third: I was actually talking about Lilith, remember her?”

“Oh, my god.” The clanging of his chains told her he was burying his face in his hand, the way he always did when the groups various antics grew to be too much for him. She also heard him briefly wince in pain. “You are aware that was entirely fabricated by all of your dirty, dirty minds, right?”

“I figured,” she sighed with disappointment. “Too bad. Also, how are your hands, darling?”

“Not well,” he admitted.

“Gimme,” she insisted, and started shuffling her chained hands towards him. “What the hell did you even do?”

“I laced the handcuffs with gunpowder,” Percy explained, laying his hands into hers on both sides. She used what little magic she had to cure the wounds the explosion had caused.

“Why would you do that?” Vex asked, horrified. “Don’t you remember that crazy old guy you bought this stuff from? Do you want to end up like him?”

“It wasn’t enough to blow a hand off, or even a finger,” Percy justified himself. “I intended it as a contingency plan in case, well, something like this happened.”

“I think your little display is what got us into this in the first place,” Vex scoffed. “I mean, trip the guy and run back to the others, what’s so hard about that? But no, someone just had to blow himself up…”

“I just hate chains,” he admitted outright. “That might have made me a little trigger-happy.”

“I get that,” she sighed. “Made some of my worst memories while chained up.”

“That’s probably something universal,” Percy mused. Vex snorted.

“Nah,” she claimed. “There’s apparently a lot of fun you can have with chains. Just ask Scanlan some time. And I mean, I tried, but I just… Couldn’t.”

“Are you doing alright then?” Percy asked, sounding honestly concerned.

“Yeah, this is fine.” Only when she moved her one of her hands to wave dismissively did she realized that they were still holding hands, despite the spell having ended and it being not exactly the most comfortable position. She still didn’t let go. “I mean, it’s light, technically kind of comfortable, we’re more or less fine, and also, oh, yeah, I’m not alone.”

“I see,” he said quietly. “That does improve the situation immensely, yes.”

“Ripley, right?” She cut straight to the chase and asked directly. She felt him nod.

“After my family was killed,” Percy said, his voice dark. “They held me in the Whitestone dungeon, and… Tortured me for information. I’d say the second time she had me in her dungeon was more pleasant, but, well…”

“Shit,” Vex cursed. “But you’re holding up okay?”

“As you said, these rather pleasant circumstances make our current predicament infinitely easier to bear.” There was a trace of self-deprecation in every word he spoke, even though he huffed up while doing so.

“Well, now I feel silly about my issues,” she muttered and leaned her head back against him.

“We’re not exactly competing,” Percy pointed out and squeezed the hand he was still holding. She snorted.

“Guess not.” Vex sighed deeply. “Remember Saundor?”

“Well, It’s been a day since you asked me that the last time,” he said dryly. “But there’s something at the back of my mind there, so I guess. What about him? He had no chains.”

“No, but he knew shit,” she explained. “Part of why his words affected me the way they did. He mentioned a… Thing that happened. A thing I hadn’t even told my brother about.”

“He was a corrupted archfey with millennia of free time,” Percy said. “It just makes sense for him to have some sort of mind reading ability.”

“Or be a creepy stalker, let’s be honest,” Vex agreed. “Okay, so. When I was young and stupid a number of years ago, I took off on my own and went into some woods I didn’t know too well.   A group of poachers thought I was pretty or something and took me captive. I managed to free myself after a while, killed them all, mercy-killed the bear whose organs they’d been poaching, and adopted her cub. Oh, yeah, this is how I got Trinket.”

“That’s a perfectly adequate degree of fucked up,” Percy said, sounding taken aback. “Your first kills?”

“...That means a lot coming from you. And yes,” she confirmed. “This was very shortly after we left Syngorn, so I was… Fifteen, I guess. Young and naïve, but with very slender wrists.” She playfully attempted to wiggle her hand out of the chains. “Guess my wrists got fat.” She felt him chuckle.

“Or you grew. Or these shackles are tighter,” Percy suggested. “But sure, let’s go with that.”

That left them in a more or less comfortable silence for a while, until Vex briefly attempted to contact their group with the earrings again, to no avail. Percy meanwhile had begun to run his fingers nervously across the hand he was still holding, which would have been nice if she hadn’t known he only started fidgeting like that when he was nervous.

“Is something the matter, dear?” She asked after her hand had started to tingle from his caresses.

“It’s just…” He started, then cleared his throat. “I’ve been meaning to… You mentioned Saundor again. Does that mean you’re… Fine talking about that?”

“I guess.” She shrugged. “Would depend on what exactly you want to talk about. Then again, I guess it’s probably all uphill from here anyway.”

“Alright.” He took a deep breath. “So, when you, ah, refused him – “

Oh shit.

“ – You want to do this _now_?” Vex cut him off before he got to fully vocalize the question. “Seriously?”

“Well, now I brought it up, and it’s not like we have anything better to do,” he said quickly. Probably blushing again, judging from how flustered he sounded. At least that was something. “Or do you have any other plans for the afternoon?”

“I did, and then someone blew himself up in public,” Vex retorted. “Getting us stuck here, remember?”

“Oh, deflect all you want,” he said in a huff. “Still. Now it’s on the table. Let’s talk.”

“Is this really the later you envisioned?” She tried once more. He chuckled.

“No, it really isn’t,” he admitted. “It does have its own unique advantages though. No need for eye contact, and no one can walk away right now.”

That made her laugh, too.

“You make a fair point,” she conceded. “Just imagine how much faster Keyleth and my brother could have gotten their shit together if we’d just locked them up together…”

“So is that what we’re doing?” Percy asked, voice dropping lower in a way that made her heart jump just a little.

“Ugh, I don’t know!” She said, trying to keep the panic and embarrassment out of her voice and failing spectacularly. “You tell me, _you_ started this. And kissed me! You started this!”

“Did I?” He kept that tone in his voice, probably just to annoy her. Asshole.

“Yes, yes you did,” she asserted, trying not to shift around too much to make her nervousness less obvious. Probably also failing spectacularly.

“Funny,” Percy said dryly, sounding like he didn’t consider anything particularly funny at the moment. “I’m not the one who told a tree my heart was someone else’s.”

“I don’t remember you ever being propositioned by a tree, either,” Vex said quickly, not even sure why she was deflecting at this point. Were these kinds of conversations supposed to be this confrontational? Or was she just special that way?

“Fair enough,” he admitted, and sighed, leaning against her heavily. Only then did she notice how fast his heartbeat was going, too. Right. This was as nerve-wrecking for him as it was for her. His hand was even shaking! The hand that was still intertwined with hers. Oh boy. “Alright,” he then continued. “As you know, a certain kind of bravado comes naturally to me in many walks of life – “

“ – like stabbing dragons?” She cut him off again, just to be difficult.

“For instance.” He cleared his throat. “But, ah… _This_ right now is not something I am particularly… Used to dealing with. So as much fun as our… _Flirtations_ are, I simply don’t want to go on feeling like I might be stepping over some line, or intruding, or assuming too much.” 

He had to gasp for air just a little after finishing that speech. Vex had to fight not to giggle like a silly little school girl after processing what he’d just said, squeezing his hand appreciatively.

“So, wait,” she demanded, “You’re… Concerned about developing and acting on inappropriate feelings for me that might be unrequited, am I getting this straight?”

“Half of the time,” he admitted, sounding cautious. “The other half I keep telling myself that you’ve not exactly been, ah, discouraging this, either. And then start contemplating what you said to Saundor, again, among other things, and then I feel like an asshole for assuming, again.”

Now she really did start laughing, deeply, loudly, and she would have fallen over if the neck chains tying her to the wall hadn’t been so short.

“Wow,” she gasped after a while. “Okay. You’re an idiot. I’m an idiot.” She winced. “And worst of all, my brother was right.”

“What a horrible predicament,” he commented dryly, sounding impatient. “And yet I don’t quite follow?”

“Then just keep assuming, dear,” she said, trying to stay serious instead of grinning like an idiot, which she also failed at spectacularly – which still felt like an accomplishment considering she felt like sunshine, lollipops and rainbows were trying to burst out of her chest right now. And like dancing. One of the many things the chains made kind of difficult. “It’s been working well for you so far.”

“Oh.” His voice had gotten really, really tiny there, it was adorable. Oh, gods. She was going to turn into one of these horrible, over-excited happy people, wasn’t she? She was glowing already and they hadn’t even fucked yet. And right now, she didn’t even find it in herself to be annoyed by being the worst kind of annoying person. Damn.

“And yeah, I am so not looking forward to admitting this to my brother,” she continued. “But by far the worst predicament right now is that I really, really want to kiss you. Stupid chains.”

That finally made him laugh, too. Good. So at least she wasn’t the only happy idiot around anymore.  

 

* * *

 

“Stubby, where the fuck are you?” Her brother’s voice rang through her ear.

“Oh, wow, you finally decided to come looking for us, have you?” She retorted. It had probably been like two hours at least by this point, her back was soaked through with her own sweat and Percy’s from being forced to lean against each other in this heat this long, which wasn’t exactly sexy. Then again, it was a vast improvement considering how he’d been a corpse not a week ago, so whatever.

“Well, what can I say.” Vax sounded way too smug over the ear piece. “Uten said Freddie wanted to look at something shiny and you went with him. We figured you two snuck away for some alone time, and since you’re usually the ones to talk everyone else out of trouble, we didn’t want to interrupt. But it’s getting late, and you guys missed Grog and Pike wrestling with a fire giant, and we’d all like to be back home as soon as possible, so put some clothes on and come meet us.”

“Oh, I’d love to!” Vex said, raising her voice dramatically. “It’s just that being chained to each other and a wall made taking them off in the first place a bit difficult.”

“You’re chained together?” Vax asked, now with the appropriate amount of concern in his voice. “What the fuck happened?”

“We went to look at shiny things, got into a… Kerfuffle, _someone_ blew himself up, and then we were taken to some sort of holding place for misbehaved slaves,” she summarized quickly. “So if Cenokir would be so kind as to come pick up his wayward property…”

“Shit, are you okay? Do you know where they took you?” And now her brother sounded panicked enough to do something stupid. Great.

“We’re fine,” she assured him. “Locked up and chained together in an uncomfortable position, but fine otherwise. Just tell Cenokir what happened, he’ll know where to find us. Dropping his name got us special treatment.”

“Alright.” He seemed to calm down a little. “So you’ve been chained up together this whole time? Did you at least bother to sort out your mess?”

“ _Priorities_!” Vex hissed at him while Percy chuckled behind her. “Get us out of here, and _maybe_ I’ll tell you.”

“I’ll take that as a yes, then,” Vax declared, and the connection was lost again.

“…So he knows?” Percy asked after waiting for a while to make sure the connection was dead.

“Kind of everyone does,” she admitted. “At least my half. All of this would have been so much easier if you could just remember your resurrection, you know?”

“I’m amazed they kept it quiet for this long, then,” he mused. She groaned.

“Well, that’s all out the window now!” Vex declared dramatically. “We’ll never hear the end of it. That and the fact that we got arrested.”

Percy shrugged.

“At the pace we’re going, will be in some crazy fight the second we leave this plane, and then in the next and the next, and if we’re still around to be made fun of after that, then dammit, I’ll take it.”

“Words to live by,” she snorted, then leaned back against him with a sigh. “Literally.”

**Author's Note:**

> And today's entry in my apparently now weekly installment of "scenes that should totally happen next episode but won't" - aka "Just how many ways for these two to get their shit together can I come up with?". This one basically wrote itself. And that episode was just so damn kinky.


End file.
